Varun Grover

Varun Grover is the George & Boyce Billingsley Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of IS at the Walton School of Business, University of Arkansas. Prior to this he was the Lee (Duke Energy) Distinguished Professor of IS at Clemson University. He has also been affiliated through courses, workshops, panels, and talks with universities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, India, Denmark, China, and Australia and has given many keynote addresses at various forums around the world.

Varun’s research has largely examined how information systems foster value by impacting individuals, transforming processes, and changing competitive dynamics. His current research focuses on the tenets of digitalization (including digital competition, and artificial intelligence), and its profound (positive, negative, and ethical) effects on individuals, organizations, and society. He has around 450 publications in major refereed journals, including over 150 in the AIS basket of premier journals. Ten recent articles have ranked him among the top four researchers globally based on publications in top IS journals, as well as citation impact. Varun has an h-index of 104 which is in the top 5 in the IS discipline, and over 59,000 citations in Google Scholar. Thompson Reuters recognized him as one of 100 most Highly Cited Scholars in all Business disciplines and a Stanford University study ranked him 6th (out of 17,971 authors) in the IS discipline. He is ranked 23rd in the world and 15th in the 2022 Edition of top scientists in Business and Management published by Research.com.

Varun has held major editorial positions in all the top IS journals, including Senior Editor for MIS Quarterly (2-terms) and the Journal of the AIS (5-terms). He currently serves as Senior Editor for MISQ Executive, Editor of JAIS Section on Path Breaking Research. He has edited 6 special issues of MISQ, JMIS, MISQE and Database, and 3 books on IT and process change. Varun has also been involved in numerous AIS leadership positions including ICIS and AMCIS roles like Conference Co-Chair (proposed), Program Co-Chair, Track Chair, Doctoral Consortium Chair, Junior Faculty Camp Co-Chair, as well as organizer of numerous workshops. Varun has had the privilege of being extensively engaged with PhD students through building doctoral programs at USC and Clemson, chairing/co-chairing over 45 dissertations, participating in numerous doctoral consortia as keynote speaker or faculty mentor and co-chairing the doctoral consortium at ICIS and AMCIS multiple times. He has written over 20 advice columns promoting PhD student success. In 2011, he was recognized for lifelong service to AIS.

Varun’s research, teaching and service have resulted in numerous awards, He has received the top University-wide awards for faculty excellence from USC, Clemson, and the University of Arkansas. In 2023 he received Walton’s “all around” faculty awarrd  and the presigious University Alumni Research Award from the University of Arkansas.  In teaching, he has received over a dozen awards for teaching excellence, including the Alfred Smith Award (twice), MBA Professor of the Year (4 times) and Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award (3 times).  He has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from both the Indian Institute of Technology and the University of Pittsburgh.  In research, he holds a number of best paper awards from AIS, Academy of Management, DSI, the OR Society, Anbar, PriceWaterhouse. In 2010, he was designated as a Fellow of AIS and in 2020 was awarded the highest honor from AIS, the LEO Award for lifetime exceptional achievement in information systems.